Beyonce and her blonde wig cover the new issue of Out Magazine. It’s a surprising choice for Beyonce, who basically has done NO magazine promotion for her album thus far. I remember her last album and the promotion – Beyonce was all over the place, on cover after cover after cover, and she really oversaturated the market then. I like that she’s changing it up, and I think it’s cool that she did an Out cover. You can read Out’s profile here – she really did allow the magazine into her inner sanctum. Some highlights from the interview:

On the album being one of her most sexually liberated projects: “I’d like to believe that my music opened up that conversation. There is unbelievable power in ownership, and women should own their sexuality. There is a double standard when it comes to sexuality that still persists. Men are free and women are not. That is crazy. The old lessons of submissiveness and fragility made us victims. Women are so much more than that. You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist – whatever you want to be – and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.

On the rawness of her voice in the song “XO”: “When I recorded “XO” I was sick with a bad sinus infection. I recorded it in a few minutes just as a demo and decided to keep the vocals. I lived with most of the songs for a year and never re-recorded the demo vocals. I really loved the imperfections, so I kept the original demos. I spent the time I’d normally spend on backgrounds and vocal production on getting the music perfect. There were days I spend solely on getting the perfect mix of sounds for the snare alone. Discipline, patience, control, truth, risk, and effortlessness were all things I thought about while I was putting this album together.

On the numerous groups, including the LGBT community, that identify with the lyrics of her fifth album: “While I am definitely conscious of all the different types of people who listen to my music, I really set out to make the most personal, honest, and best album I could make. I needed to free myself from the pressures and expectations of what I thought I should say or be, and just speak from the heart. Being that I am a woman in a male-dominated society, the feminist mentality rang true to me and became a way to personalize that struggle…But what I’m really referring to, and hoping for, is human rights and equality, not just that between a woman and a man. So I’m very happy if my words can ever inspire or empower someone who considers themselves an oppressed minority…We are all the same and we all want the same things: the right to be happy, to be just who we want to be and to love who we want to love.

On her worries as she neared the completion of the album and prepared for its release: “I was recording, shooting videos, and performing on the tour every night, all at the same time. At some point I felt like, What am I doing? Is this too ambitious? Even the day the record was to be released I was scared to death. But I also knew if I was that scared, something big was about to happen.

I remember a time when Beyonce didn’t really want to speak up for her LGBT fans, so it’s nice that she’s evolved to the point where she’s talking about human rights and equality explicitly. As for her feminism… I don’t have a huge problem with it. I loathe the flame wars between women about how feminism should be defined and which woman has the “wrong” definition of feminism. If Beyonce considers herself a feminist then so be it. Good for her. I think this is her strongest feminist statement: “You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist – whatever you want to be – and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.” Truth.

The blonde bob is eh, she looks better than some I’ve seen, but I do like the white. Her intelligent answers are the best thing she’s wearing here tho. It’s weird to hear Bey expound on things off the cuff and sound like a smart, thoughtful woman. Rare.

I think she’s trying to appear more like an actual “artist” than the vocal female artist she is. People called Adele an artist and her just a singer and maybe that stung her a bit no matter how true it is.

Seriously. Why does everything have to be about sex and sexuality? Isn’t there more to life? Or at least something else that interests her? It’s so boring, everyone talks about sexuality now. I have sex but it isn’t the center of my life and the only thing I care about or talk about. That’s why I will always click on a shailene story, it’s something different and interesting at least, even if she is a little crazy haha.

She has realized sex sells. And with the latest stunt with jay z rubbing on her ass on stage she had hit rock bottom. She has the voice and the moves so why act like she needs the other crap? For many years she was very private about her life, her love story with jay z and the secret wedding. Now she shows her cervix on the VMAS and her pelvic floor in music videos. It’s such a tiresome act.

Bey has always come out so rehearsed and pageanty ,i love her as a performer but i can’t get with her manufactured personality. Did she even sit for this interview, or it was sent to her and her publicist wrote out the responses.

I have no desire to try to make any woman define ‘feminism’ the way that I do. I really don’t. However, I do have to give a side-eye to Bey talking about sexual equality when the lyrics to her Drunk In Love song include a reference to Tina Turner getting abused by Ike Turner (“eat the cake, Anna Mae, eat the cake…”), an actual incident that sent Tina to the hospital. You can preach about sexual equality all you want, but lyrics like that, to me, show that her talk is just that, talk, with no substance to back it up. Endorsing spousal abuse doesn’t strike me as being exactly on message.

I dont have a problem with what she said here, if she even said it… Although I do think it’s a little bit “duh”.

But you know what I find interesting? The fact that tons of her songs are all about love and sex, yet the videos are just images of HER. Drunk in love? If the video is anything to go by, she’s drunk (she looked it) and she is in love with herself. I liked destiny’s child, I don’t mind many of her songs, but gosh her narcissism screams at me.

Nothing wrong with being sexy. I will argue with her idea of sexy. Making a sex/orgasm face in a magazine, not so much. Sexy doesn’t have to mean being half dressed, wearing fake hair, singing explicit lyrics. I don’t recall seeing her husband less than fully dressed and I assume she thinks he is sexy.

So now she engineers all her own music according to this article? Or is this another NeYo incident where she takes credit for someone else doing the work?

Sigh, Beyonce, Gaga, Shakira and all these other celebs just love to spew on about Femenism lately because it’s the “in” subject to talk about. Only when they talk about Femenism, it seems to mostly always be about sex and how “in your face” they get to be about it. I really hope they indersytand it’s deeper than that. And then they turn around and do/say something that is the complete opposite of what they proclaim. It seem to me they are just jumping on a bandwagon for attention and to hear themselves speak.

She can define feminism any way she likes, but I don’t have to agree with it. Miley thinks she’s a feminist. Gaga thinks she’s a feminist. Bey jumped on the raunchy bandwagon and calls it feminism. Whatever. I still see it as a cheap sell-out to remain relative. I work with victims of domestic violence, legal aid, the courts and legislation, so it’s hard for me to see the work being done for not just women, but specifically women of minority groups, in an effort to get them fair representation, change laws, and push for grass roots efforts to get these women the financial and education help/tools they need to compete in the job market to gain independence – and put that in the same category as Bey showing me the crotch panel of her pantyhose. Sorry, I just can’t.

When Queen B talks folks feel some type of way. The comments are more tacky then the wig she is wearing. I admire the new Beyonce because she will never change for anyone. I think she welcomes the negative comments because they make her even stronger. Most are about a tacky ass wig, whereas she is a strong, successful, black woman with the utmost self awareness–no words, no person, will bring her down. That is why she is an inspiration to many, and not just in the black community.

This is a gossip site and people feel every which way about anything and everything that comes out of a celebrity’s mouth, so it is not just her that people feel they have to pick apart. To try to shame people on a gossip site? Tacky.

As for the comments? Some are quite fair assessments of the interview and how feminist talk is the new trend for celebs.

I think some of her comments were plagarized from Madonna from back in her heyday. LOL Madonna was a lot of things that people might not have agreed with or applauded, but she was always very intelligent and a trailblazer. I saw Beyonce’s documentary and what a snoozefest she was.

Beyonce is talented and deserves her success. She’s worked hard for it, but so many of her comments trying to sound deep remind me of her documentary, trying so hard to show us the in charge, creative Beyonce and it was just Beyonce with her same voice never showing much expressiveness in it when talking telling us these things. Madonna showed us these things through some of the best artistic music videos ever done and concerts that told a story of some of her outlandish sexuality and what it meant and a firecracker personality.

And, no offense, Bey, because you usually put on fantastic performances for awards shows, but that Grammy opening was lackluster, no matter how much you think it was pushing the boundaries. A song not made for the opening of the Grammy’s because it’s not good enough. A lot of lip-syncing, and just a bore no matter how much you tried to be sexy and provocative pushing the limits. It fell apart. Let’s call it like it was, bad choreography that was tacky at times, and one of the worst openers of the Grammy’s.

I agree about the opening of the grammys. I just read that this was not a face to face interview. Like i said, someone put these words together and emailed them. She is talented, but enough with the sex thing.

Bey is beautiful and successful but she will not be joining Mensa in the near or distant future.

People need to stop equating beauty and money with intelligence. No, you don’t have to be a genius to be successful but you do have to have some talent, a work ethic and a good team.

In Bey’s case, talent; looks; hard work; combined with a driven father and an advantageous marriage have paid off in a big way. But I often wonder if not for her father just where Bey’s career would be if left to her own devices.

(Keep me coming, keep me going), keep me coming, keep me going (Keep me humming, keep me moaning), keep me humming, keep me moaning (Non-stop love until the morning), Non-stop love until the morning (Non-stop screaming, freakin’, blowin’) Blow-o-o
[Hook:]
Can you eat my skittles. It’s the sweetest in the middle
Pink is the flavor. Solve the riddle
I’m a lean back
Don’t worry it’s nothing major
Make sure you clean that
It’s the only way to get the Flavor
[Verse 2:]
When you’re thirsty and need love
I give it up till I’m empty baby
Must be good to you
If you’re lonely in your bed, I’ll fill it up to the top, baby
Must be good to you
I’m about to get into this girls,
This is for all my grown women out there
[Bridge:]
I can’t wait till I get home so you can tear that cherry out, (turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
I can’t wait till I get home so you can tear that cherry out, (turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
I want you to
(Turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
I want you to
(Turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
I want you to
(Turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
I want you to
(Turn that cherry out, turn that cherry out)
[Verse 3:]
Ooh I had a naughty thought today baby
Every time I close my eyes
Ooh get a glimpse of this candy paint
Don’t slip off when it drip off on top of your ride
You see it here, Lift it up toss it babe
I know everything you want
I’m a show you how I stroke (stroke it)
Bring your work home on top of me
I’m a let you be the boss of me
I know everything you want
Give me that daddy long stroke…